Spelling

Thanks for this post - thought it was just me! I do think it is a bit of a lack of confidence thing. I used to check with my DH quite often as he was a "words" man (crossword fanatic) but now when on my Chromebook I have a tab open at the top to check when I'm not sure of a spelling.

Why do American spellings make you cringe Grandma70s?

One of the reasons Noah Webster simplified American English spelling was to make it closer to pronunciation and thus easier to learn.

He removed superfluous letters (including graphemes), reversed French word endings and effectively reinstated Oxford spelling (z for s).

travelled - traveled
colour - color
paediatric - pediatric
center - center
defence - defense
catalogue - catalog
apologise - apologize

Sounds like a good idea to me.

It was also partly political - to distance the newly independent country from its former colonial masters and to stimulate the American print industry reducing the country's reliance on imported printed matter from Britain.

Antonia. I write with a fountain pen. I find it slows my writing down which makes it neater.

The bane of my younger life was the fountain pen.
Once we started to do 'joined up' writing we were given one at school, and I spent the rest of time covered in ink!

I might have guessed from your username Fountainpen!

Nope.

I was never great at spelling though good at English and sometimes I have to think more before being sure of a word. I blame Facebook as every day I see wrong spelling and use of words. So often people ask if something or other is aloud . We saw a corker yesterday on a reseaurant site. The poster said they offered something for every pallet .

Relieved to learn I’m not the only one!

IT is an age thing I used to spell very well have to think now blame my phone ha ha!!

Thank goodness it is not only me. I sometimes look back at posts and realise that I have used the wrong Homophones which makes me cringe.

Nothing to do with either. Tablets & phones do it all for you and therefore there is no longer a need to think how to spell anything.

Me too but I blame the predictive text rather than my age!

ninathenana

Google spell checker is the US version which is often at odds with 'our' English language.

Thanks for all the replies - it makes me feel better. I have always been, and still am, a big reader and presumed that was why I was such a good speller. No more though. I have just noticed that it was drawn to my attention on another thread that I had spelt 'appalled' wrongly.

I am appalled that I can't even spell appalled.

Not a great idea FountainPen.
It means that paediatric (say peediatric) becomes pediatric (say ped-iatric), thus Caesar becomes Cesar (say sez-ar)
The yanks will do anything to despoil our beautiful language, including calling both males and females GUYS.
Dreadful.

I was always terrible at spelling. Use to get 3/20 and have to stand on a chair and get my legs smacked by the teacher. Computers, spell check and to some extent predictatext, (is that a word?) have enabled me to write reports at work and a newsletter for a club.

I had been spelling words wrong for years!

Phew! I'm joining in the sighs of relief that it's not just us!!

I shall see how far I get here without predictive text butting in.I can still spell thank goodness, my OH has dyslexia,and often asks me how to spell something, thats ok, but he is Swedish so I have to be on the mark in order to give him the correct Swedish spelling, not my native English. Keeps my brain active!

so find I spell a word correctly but it doesn't look right and have to double check ?

Not so much the spelling, but instead of writing 'there' I'll write 'their' etc. Why?

I do like good writing instruments and quality writing paper.
My present stash is Churston deckle edge bought 2 years ago on ebay as it's no longer sold. Some is Dawn Pink and some Mist Grey.
Envelopes are lined with tissue in a darker shade.
I'm now stocking up on Scriptum Amalfi, each sheet hand-made and Scriptum envelopes which are beautifully lined with marbled paper in different colours.
Letters to friends, past colleagues and my OH and children are always penned on beautiful paper or notecards. They are, so I'm told, read, kept and re-read.

I used to get complimented on my lovely handwriting. These days I can barely write a birthday card without cringing - it's almost as if I have forgotten how to write!

I find Alexa very helpful when I need a spellcheck. She can spell anything. But makes me very lazy.

Yes I think the motor skills of writing out words reinforced the memory of how to spell words. It’s the same as telephone numbers, it was so much easier to remember them when you had to dial them. My spelling is still quite good but I find if I stop and think about how to spell a word it makes me doubt myself.

I hate acronyms as you probably know. I wish you would not use them. We will soon all be speaking in acronyms, apart from me, of course.

I remember learning how to do joined up writing from the blackboard in primary school. When I started grammar school the Headmaster insisted we all learnt how to do italic writing and use it in all our exercise books. We had to have special italic pens. I’m afraid it ruined my handwriting and many of my friends found the same.